B-17 Tail Gunner Walter Bardsley

Why were automatic turrets were designed for the B-29? Because of the dangerous conditions for gunners in the B-17... Walt Bardsley recalls his time as a tail gunner in a B-17 with a close call. The B-17 Flying Fortress was a workhorse bomber during World War II. The B-29 came out at the end of the war and had a better safety record thanks to Engineers like Harold Chestnut. There work translated to peacetime applications in commercial aircraft afterwards.

[jerryadkins]

I would like to find some photos of the view from the tail gunner's seat, and the controls for the guns. My wife's uncle Lynn Calendar was a B-17 tail gunner, and I did an audio interview with him about a year before he passed away. The interview with still photos was posted on YouTube about a year ago.

[BeachsideHank]

Dad was a tail gun in a fort, he said it sucked big time back there; like the ball turret gun, you were isolated and apart from your crewmates, and until they put in windows on the "G", the cold air swept down the fuselage and out through his position, he always had to wear the electrical heated suit, which usually developed a short and several hot spots, in a strange way his misery ended back there when he was shot out of the sky and captured by the Germans. Stayed in the Air Force, flew as central fire control on a B29, wore a simple flight jumper on those Korean missions, world of difference.

[EricJaakkola]

And yet, they could not hit a target from that height